It feels like an impending storm is brewing. August is a particularly full month, with a tight schedule stretching all the way into the second week of September. Responsibilities stacked on responsibilities: work, volunteering, blogs, podcasts, caring for family, caring for the dogs, church activities, and community commitments. It is enough to make anyone feel like time is slipping through their fingers.
And that is exactly the point. Time does fly. The question is whether we lose sight of what is truly important in the rushing of it all. Life is going to throw things our way. We can call them August demands, and they will blur our vision. They make us want to juggle everything perfectly, even at the expense of our morning time carved out with God. Life gets louder than the quietude of God’s stillness.
As part of my planning for the upcoming month, I was entering all the demands of August into my calendar and sensed a sudden rush of panic. My corporate skills kicked in immediately. I got into resource and time management mode. What can be deprioritized? What can be reallocated? Wake up earlier? Reduce time doing things that do not yield impactful ROI? Too many questions. I had to step away and consult the Author of life.
Like any sane person, I went on with reading my daily quota of Psalms, Proverbs, and my allotted book of the Bible. Psalm 90:4-6 caught my attention. I began to wonder if all the panic I was feeling about time was because in the end, my life is fleeting and amounts to nothing.
“For a thousand years in Your sight are like yesterday when it is past, and like a watch in the night. You carry them away like a flood; they are like a sleep. In the morning they are like grass which grows up: in the morning it flourishes and grows up; in the evening it is cut down and withers.”
-Psalm 90:4-6
Moses wrote Psalm 90 to reflect the struggle in the wilderness. Who is man but like grass that withers away? When read like that, it can feel as though God does not love us, as though we are insignificant, fleeting, forgettable. And that is precisely what Satan wants us to think. I was not going to be outsmarted again by Satan, not with God watching over me. So I powered through.
Fast forward to Revelation 13 and we see the beast and the evil minions of Satan assembling and marking their targets. But here is what they do not know: the Book of Life was established before the foundation of the world. Satan may think he is marking targets, but God covers His people and keeps them safe under His wings, like the hen gathering her chicks in Matthew 23.
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!”
-Matthew 23:37
So I had misread Psalm 90:4-6. The passage is not about God’s indifference toward us. It is about His timelessness. It is about the fact that He exists so far outside of time that a thousand years is like yesterday to Him. And from that eternal vantage point, He saw us, loved us, and planned our rescue before the world was even made. Vile Satan. He almost had me doubting the goodness of God, even for a second. Shame on me.
But here we are. This realization calls for the start of an amazing day.
Even though our lives are fleeting, we can overcome the loss of loved ones, the trials of busy Augusts, and the whispering doubts that tell us we do not matter. God has us in His Book for eternity, never to be forgotten, worth His own blood to Him. We may not always feel it, but He knows it. And He knows best.
Dear God,
You have made it possible for me to live in Your holy presence forever. Cared for in small and big ways, thank You for Your blood, Your faithfulness, and Your unconditional love. Teach me to love You back with as much earnestness as my little heart can muster. I ask in Your precious name, Jesus. Amen.